Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1887-04-09

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carried from the same mine and deliv-
cred by the same company at Balti-
more. In all reason and conscience il
should be from fifty cents to a dollar
less, seeing that the distance is sixty
miles greater to Baltimore. THAI
makes the discrimination against York
at least equal to a dollar and a half OIL
every ton. The quantity consumed in
the latter place is something upward
of q hundred thousand tons; and the
excessive tax upon it all is therefore
ono hundred and fifty thousand dollars
Every cent of this is as %wrongfully
taken as it it were teloniously stolen
1t amounts to many times as much il
the aggregate as all the Legitimate
taxes which the anne community pay
for the support. of the state, county
schools ami aims houses. Nay, it il
more than all the taxes imposed fol
those purposes on the whole of the
great county in which the town Of
York is situated. A manufacturer
there who uses two thousand tons o.
coal per annum must pay three
thousand dollars of black mail to the
railroads, or to the monopoly which
they have created, unless the influence
Of his wealth gets it remitted. But the
largest part of it is levied upon poor
laborers whose wages are barely suf-
fcient to furnish their families, in
scanty measure, with food, shelter and
clothing; much of it is paid by the
contributions Of charity for those who
would otherwise perish by cold and
hunger. The man who can hear the
simple story of this wrong without in
dignation must be as cold-blooded as a
snake.
You need not confine your sympa-
thies to York. | can give you no exact
account of the similar suffering inflicted
on Philadelphia. But. any officer OF
the Reading company can furnish it.
Mr.. Gowen, free spoken as he is about
the sins of his rivals, is naturally re-
ticent concerning his own. But If he
opens his mouth he will tell you the
truth; and, unless l am much mistaken,
It will be an, awful tale of wrong and
oppression.
a full inquiry, if it shall ever be
instituted, will probably show that
nearly all the railroad corporations
the smaller ones following the example
of the greater-bave violated their
charters by engaging Gin mining and
manufacturing articles for t%ransporta-
ton over their own works." and thus
acquired a monopoly of the production
as well as the carrying. 1t is in this
way that the Reading company has got
the coal market of Philadelphia under
its foot. Why should not that cOrpo-
ration and the others be made to respect
the majesty. of justice by an enforce
ment of the constitution (sec. 3, art.
xvii), which, if it leave then what they
have already got iii violation of law
will at least prevent or punish such
outrsges In the future.
Inc iMperiuus necessity, however, Of
enforcing the constitution arises out OF
the depredations which they commit
upon all classes everywhere within the
state, in what they call their local rates
You can take the figures known to be
true and demonstrate by the plainest
process of simple arithmetic that their
tariff of rates for carrying goods from
place to place within the state is ex-
to- tionate beyond all reason.
They have not the face to DENY that
their through rates are high enough to
give them all the compensation they
can reasonably demand for that part o.
their service. The trunk lines strug'
gled and fought tor that trade against
one another with a ~fierceness whicL
showed that they regarded 1t as YER,
profitable. Their W competition
reduced it for a while, but they com
bined aud raised their charges high
enough to satisfy all of them. 1t i:
ridiculous to say that this mutua
agreement fixed the rates below a tail
standard. That is a sort OF error
which ~mOnopolists new commit
Accepting the almost unanimous testi'
monv of disinterested persons whit
ought to know whereof they affirm, thu
belief is fully authorized that they hav'
fixed their through rates unreasonab!,
high; but we will assume that they are
only fair. That point being satisfac
tOrily established, it follows, as the dal
follows the night, that the much highe
rates. which they charge on loca
freights are unjust and extortionate,
palpable violation of u rights,
gross offense against the constitution
I use the word rate in the popula
and legal sense, as meaning the ratio
or proportion of the whole eharg
to the distance the freight is carried
Thus, if q ton be carried six hundre.
miles, from Chicago TO Philadelphia
for five dollars, and the same charge b
made for carrying it twelve miles from
Philadelphia MEDIA, the rate in tn
latter case is fifty times as high a
in the former. l am credibly informe'
that such disproportloned charges ar
or have recently been made, and tina
Is q general rule all local freights
whether the haul be long or short, ar
charged without regard to distance
the same. or nearly the same, tha
would be charged on the same weigl
If carried from Chicago to Boston,. L
the extent of this enormous discrim
nation against our own people they al
robbed and plundered.
The effect of it upon the agriculture
interest cannot be ascertained exactl
without an investigation, which yo
can make, and | cannot; but Oh
reasonable probability is that 1t take
most unjustly from seven TO ten cen
pei bushel from the price OF all graz
grown in the state and corresponding
reduces the value of all other product
Then look how it touches he righI
and interests of consumers in the gre'
centers of population. Within a Giro
of one hundred and fifty miles i'll d
ameter around Philadelphia, provision
enough might be raised to feed Il
city, but they cannot be taken thel
without paying a freight on them /
heavy as it would cost to bring the
from Illinois TO Wisconsin Thus q
army of a million souls, some OF the
half mad with hunger, virtually haN
their base of supplies moved back S
or seven hundred miles away.
These railroad men have anoth'
way OF cheating the public; not Tor Il
benefit OF their corporate treasure
but to swell the private iortu;.es OF Il
managers. A ring OF them l. i"rm'
Into q separate transportation coinpah
with the privilege OF carrying on lle
own roads at the highest tsrlgi,ts 'h'
can extort. By means of preierenc
and determinations, the parent corp
ramon fCrces into the hands Of lis ba
t&rd offspring as much OF the 5usine
as it wants; tor the shipper WI
refuses to patronize the ring, mu
suffer the penalty OF still higher RAJ
a. we'll as delay and difficulty. T
.0ovout;on nf 1879 haIiayaI mar II